Scholars from Shirvan hold a place of their own in the spiritual history of Amasya. One of the best known is İsmail Sıracüddin Şirvânî (Ismail Sirajuddin Shirvani), a Naqshbandi-Khalidi sheikh who emigrated from the Caucasus in the first half of the nineteenth century and settled in the city. He is also known by the epithet Kürdemirî, after the village where he was born. The name "Sıracüddin" means "lamp of the faith" and was given to him by his teacher, Mawlana Khalid al-Baghdadi. Şirvânî founded a circle of learning and Sufism in Amasya. Among the students he trained were figures such as the poet Mir Hamza Nigârî, and his son Mehmed Rüşdü Pasha rose to the Ottoman grand vizierate. The path he opened in the Caucasus matters as much as his life in Amasya: the Sufi lineage of the Khalidi sheikhs of Dagestan and of the leaders of the holy war (gazavat) against the Russians runs back through him to Khalid al-Baghdadi. His tomb in the city is still known among the people as the "Upper Tomb" (Yukarı Türbe).

Lineage, Birth and Early Education

According to the detailed biography in Hüseyin Hüsameddin Yasar's Amasya Tarihi (History of Amasya), the sheikh's name was İsmail, his father's name was Mehmed, and his lineage is recorded as Mehmed bin Abdülhamîd bin Ahmed. He was born in the year 1197 of the Hijra, around 1782-83, in the village of Kürdemir, which belonged to the town of Şemâhî in the province of Shirvan, in present-day Azerbaijan. Some publications give his year of birth as 1786. He began his schooling at a young age in nearby Şemâhî under Muhammed Nûrî Efendi, a student of Kadı Baba Mehmed Efendi, one of the scholars of the town, and read as far as Molla Câmî's commentary on the Kâfiye.

After this first phase he set out on a long journey in search of learning. In 1215 of the Hijra, that is 1800-01, he went to Erzincan and attended the lessons of Evliyâzâde Abdurrahmân Efendi, one of the learned men of the day. Hüsameddin writes that these lessons lasted about five years and that he completed his studies there and received an ijaza (certificate of learning). He then went on to Tokat. Some biographies say he stayed in Tokat for a year, while Hüsameddin records only that he spent one month of Ramadan there. Some accounts relate that in these years he also went to Baghdad, where he studied hadith with Mervezî Yahyâ Efendi at Süleymâniye and the rational sciences with Molla Muhammed, known as Ibn Adam. In 1220-21 of the Hijra (1805-06) he came to Burdur and studied jurisprudence there for a time. After all these years of madrasa life he returned to Shirvan and began teaching in Şemâhî. The sources give the length of this teaching period as six or seven years.

Hüsameddin says that Şirvânî's chain of scholarly transmission was very well known among the ulema, and he traces it through his teacher Evliyâzâde Abdurrahman Efendi and that teacher's own master, Ürgüplü Hacı Ahmed Efendi. According to him, the chain divides from there into three branches: the branch of Ebû Saîd Mehmed Hâdimî, the branch of Iydîzâde Hacı Mustafa Âkif, and the branch of Laz İbrâhim Efendi. Together with the stations of Erzincan, Tokat and Burdur, this chain suggests that Şirvânî completed his madrasa education largely within the established scholarly circles of Anatolia. It may also be supposed that this shared scholarly background played a part in the speed with which he later won standing among the ulema of Amasya; this is an inference that the sources do not state openly.

Attachment to Mawlana Khalid al-Baghdadi

Teaching and travel had not satisfied Şirvânî. He was looking for an accomplished spiritual guide who would train him in Sufism. He first went on pilgrimage to the Hijaz. According to Hüsameddin this journey began in 1227 of the Hijra (1812), and on the way back Şirvânî stopped in Istanbul and stayed there for about three months. He set out on the road to India to join the circle of Abdullah-ı Dehlevî (Abdullah of Delhi), one of the renowned spiritual guides of the time, and got as far as Basra. Tradition holds that in Basra he changed course at a spiritual sign from Dehlevî and went instead to his best-known successor, Mawlana Khalid al-Baghdadi. Hüsameddin writes that he reached Baghdad in 1228 of the Hijra (1813), stayed for about ten months in Khalid al-Baghdadi's house of spiritual discipline, completed the path and received his deputyship.

Khalid al-Baghdadi was the sheikh who renewed the Mujaddidi branch of the Naqshbandiyya and gave his name to the Khalidiyya, the branch that spread through Ottoman lands, the Caucasus and Central Asia in the nineteenth century. The İslâm Ansiklopedisi's entry on the Khalidiyya counts İsmail Sıracüddin Şirvânî among his leading successors. The date of Şirvânî's ijaza and his return home is given differently in the sources: Hüsameddin places the return in 1229 of the Hijra (1813-14), while academic studies of the Khalidiyya accept that Şirvânî returned to the Kürdemir region in 1817 with an ijaza and permission to guide, and that the order began to spread in Azerbaijan with that return. His teacher Khalid al-Baghdadi died in 1827.

The ijaza given to Şirvânî is a text written in Arabic, and a copy of it can be seen today in the tomb, beside the account of his life displayed on a panel. In this document Mawlana Khalid states that he has granted him permission to guide, to perform dhikr and to instruct in the affirmation of God's oneness on the Naqshbandi path, and expresses the wish that he pass on spiritual grace to his students. He also counsels him to hold fast to the Book and the Sunna, never to abandon the work of correcting the creed of the Ahl al-Sunna, to show respect to teachers of the Qur'an, scholars of jurisprudence and Sufis, and to cultivate soundness of heart, generosity, a cheerful face, the abandoning of enmities, and never thinking himself superior to anyone. The text ends with the words "I, the poor and lowly Khalid al-Naqshbandi al-Mujaddidi," and beneath it is a seal listing the Khalidi, Naqshbandi, Mujaddidi, Qadiri, Kubrawi, Suhrawardi and Chishti lineages.

Hüsameddin also lists the sheikh's Sufi lineage link by link. The chain runs from Mawlana Khalid to Abdullah-ı Dehlevî, from there through Habîbullah Hindî and Muhammed Ma'sûm Sirhindî to Imam Rabbani Ahmad Faruqi, then through the great masters of the Khwajagan such as Ubaydullah Ahrar, Baha al-Din Naqshband, Abd al-Khaliq Ghujduwani and Yusuf Hamadani, all the way to Abu'l-Hasan Kharaqani and Bayazid Bistami. Read together with the seal on the ijaza hanging in the tomb in Amasya, this lineage shows that Şirvânî was regarded as a representative both of the Mujaddidi-Khalidi branch and of a wider Sufi tradition.

This attachment also has a contested side. The İslâm Ansiklopedisi's entry on Muridism, while discussing the Naqshbandi-Khalidi roots of the holy war in the Caucasus, records that Şirvânî was removed from his deputyship by Khalid al-Baghdadi "because of certain of his views and practices." The entry does not explain what these views and practices were. Hüsameddin's biography, the ijaza in the tomb and the local accounts make no mention of such a dismissal; the memory preserved in Amasya always refers to him as Mawlana Khalid's deputy. The matter cannot be clarified with the sources available to us.

Guidance in Shirvan and His Deputies in the Caucasus

After returning home Şirvânî took up teaching and spiritual guidance in and around Şemâhî and carried on this work in Shirvan for nine years. During this time he married. His first son, Abdülhamid, was born in Shirvan. Hüsameddin writes that in these years the number of his students and disciples grew large enough to alarm the Russians. Studies of the spread of the Khalidiyya in the Caucasus show that his influence soon passed beyond the borders of Shirvan. Through Şirvânî's deputies Has Muhammed Şirvânî and Muhammed Yerâgî (Muhammad Yaraghi), the order reached Dagestan. The İslâm Ansiklopedisi's entry on the Khalidiyya likewise records that Şirvânî appointed Has Muhammed Şirvânî as his deputy for that region. The madrasa in the village of Upper Yaragh in Dagestan became, in the 1830s, a centre giving both madrasa learning and Sufi training to hundreds of Khalidi followers, and it also became one of the centres of the holy war that began against the Russians.

Sheikh Cemâleddin Gazikumukî (Jamal al-Din al-Ghazi-Ghumuqi), named as Muhammed Yerâgî's only deputy, had joined Yerâgî while serving as secretary to Aslan Khan, the khan of Gazikumuk in Dagestan, and after resigning his posts he soon received his own deputyship. According to İbrahim Erol's study of this sheikh, the leaders of the holy war, Gazi Muhammed and Sheikh Shamil, entered the order through Cemâleddin Gazikumukî, and in this way the struggle against the Russians took on a Sufi character. Shamil had joined Cemâleddin's teaching circle when he was only twelve and later became his son-in-law. Another Dagestani sheikh, Sugūrî, received ijazas from both Gazikumukî and Yerâgî, and it is also reported that Şirvânî, whom he met during his pilgrimage, gave him permission to guide.

The link between Şirvânî and Molla Muhammed of Gimri, that is Gazi Muhammed, who restarted the holy war for the second time after Imam Mansur, is drawn more directly in the sources. According to the İslâm Ansiklopedisi's entry on Muridism, Molla Muhammed, born in 1793 in the Dagestani village of Gimri, became a disciple of İsmail Sıracüddin Şirvânî, received his deputyship and returned to Dagestan in 1823 to begin his work of guidance; he emerged in 1826 and launched the second holy war in 1830. According to the same entry, the Sufi lineage of Molla Muhammed and the imams after him reaches Khalid al-Baghdadi through Şirvânî; for this reason some Russian authors identified Muridism directly with the Khalidiyya and presented Khalid al-Baghdadi as though he were the founder of the movement. The leaders of the movement, for their part, used terms with a political meaning, such as "imam" in place of "sheikh" and "naib" in place of "deputy," and, avoiding any name that would recall Sufism, carried on the struggle around the idea of holy war, a value shared by all Muslims.

Russian Pressure and Departure from Shirvan

The sheikh's position grew difficult once the Shirvan Khanate passed under Russian rule. The events of this period are told in differing ways in the sources. According to the common account, the Russians imprisoned him when it became known that he was the teacher of Sheikh Shamil, the famous leader of the Caucasian resistance. One of his disciples, Sheikh Ahmed el-Ağdaşî, stood surety for him, got the sheikh out of prison and in 1826-27 brought him safely to Akhaltsikhe (Ahıska). Ağdaşî himself was arrested at one point and later escaped, coming to Akhaltsikhe to join his teacher.

Hüsameddin's account is more detailed. According to him, when the Russians overran Shirvan in 1240 of the Hijra (1824-25), Şirvânî, together with another sheikh named Ahmed Efendi, joined Gâzi Mehmed Efendi, one of the sheikhs who rose against Russian oppression, and fought the Russians under his command. One report says he had twenty thousand disciples at the time. In 1241 (1825-26), when Sheikh Ahmed Efendi came to pose a serious threat to the Russians, they seized and imprisoned Şirvânî and made his release conditional on Sheikh Ahmed's surrender. In 1242 (1826-27) Sheikh Ahmed gave himself up to the Russians to save the teacher he loved most; as soon as he was freed, Şirvânî left Şemâhî with his family and came to Akhaltsikhe. The two accounts agree that Sheikh Ahmed put himself at risk for his teacher's sake. However, Hüsameddin's placing of the date 1240 together with Gâzi Mehmed's command does not fit the information that the holy war began in 1830; it may be supposed that there is a confusion either in the date or in the identity of the commander. The biography of his son Mehmed Rüşdü Pasha also confirms that the family emigrated, after the Shirvan Khanate passed under Russian rule, first to Akhaltsikhe and then to Amasya.

Akhaltsikhe too soon came under Russian threat. According to the common account the sheikh stayed in Akhaltsikhe for two years and, when the Russians occupied it, emigrated to Amasya in 1828. Hüsameddin, however, writes that he arrived in Amasya in the month of Dhu al-Hijja of 1242 of the Hijra, that is in the summer of 1827. In either case this migration was less a journey for learning than a forced departure. Metin Hakverdioğlu of Amasya University stresses that Şirvânî was not one of the groups who came for the sake of learning but was among those compelled into forced migration by oppression in the Caucasus, and notes that his arrival opened a new era of Shirvani scholars in Amasya. According to the same study, Şirvânî was the single most important factor behind the settlement in Anatolia of hundreds of scholars and thousands of Azerbaijani Turks.

His First Years in Amasya

When Şirvânî arrived in Amasya he was first lodged temporarily in the Saraçhane Madrasa. The following year, in 1243 of the Hijra (1827-28), through the appreciative help of Fazlızâde Seyyid Hacı Mustafa Efendi, one of the notables of the city and its deputy governor (mütesellim), he settled in a house bought in the Yâkûtiye quarter and began to teach. According to Hüsameddin, the careful and searching manner of his lessons soon revealed the extent of his learning, and he gained a high standing among the ulema. His second son, Mehmed Rüşdü, was born in this house. In his biography of the son, Hüsameddin gives the year of birth as 1245 of the Hijra (1829-30) and the birthplace as the Yâkûtiyye quarter; other sources give 1828-29.

However, the Khalidi practice of rabita that the sheikh taught the people, that is, the disciple binding his heart to an accomplished spiritual guide and contemplating his outward form and inner character, troubled part of the ulema of Amasya. As Hüsameddin tells it, preachers spoke against rabita from the pulpits of the mosques, and teachers raised objections to it in certain gatherings of scholars. Hurt by these words, Şirvânî left for Sivas with his family in 1247 of the Hijra (1831-32). According to the TDV encyclopedia, rabita had met no serious criticism before the nineteenth century, but in that century it was criticised by some scholars as an innovation (bid'a), and the Khalidis wrote works in its defence; Khalid al-Baghdadi himself wrote a treatise titled Risâle fî isbâti'r-râbıta. It may be supposed that the objections Şirvânî met in Amasya in the early 1830s were an early local instance of this debate.

In the same years an important development had taken place in Istanbul. When the Janissary Corps was abolished in 1826 and the Bektashi lodges were closed, some of these lodges were given to the Khalidis, who were known for their attachment to the sharia; the order gained considerable influence in Istanbul, and this caused unease in the administration. In the end most of the Khalidis in Istanbul were exiled to Sivas in 1828. It has been suggested that Şirvânî's departure from Amasya for Sivas was connected with these developments, but this connection has not been documented with certainty. Hüsameddin, for his part, ties the departure explicitly to the rabita controversy.

The Sivas Years and the Return to Amasya

Şirvânî stayed in Sivas for about nine years and continued his teaching and guidance there. The circle of his disciples widened, and in 1833-34 (1249 of the Hijra) his third son, Ahmed Hulusi, was born. Mir Hamza, who would later become famous under the pen name Nigârî, was also among those who joined the sheikh's circle in these years. Yet his life in Sivas was not peaceful either. According to Hüsameddin, the sheikh, weary of the rough treatment of the ulema and notables of Sivas and of the haughtiness of the governor Es'ad Muhlis Pasha, came to Amasya for the second time at the beginning of 1256 of the Hijra (1840) and settled in his old house.

This second Amasya period was the most fruitful of the sheikh's life. Scholars and students attended the lessons on the Qur'an commentary of Baydawi (Tefsîr-i Beyzâvî) that he began in the Yâkûtiye mosque, and he gained great influence and fame among the common people as well. His attendance at the gatherings of Şeyhzâde Sheikh Ahmed Rüşdü Efendi, one of the Naqshbandi elders of the city, also won him the favour of the ulema. For about eight years he taught Qur'anic commentary, hadith and the theological work Mevâkıf, and gave ijazas to his advanced students. In 1844 his son Mustafa was born.

Hüsameddin writes that Şirvânî loved and esteemed Amasya, with its scholars and notables, and called the city "a bed of learning and scholars." To those who asked why he had come to Amasya a second time from Sivas, he replied, "I fled from ignorance and took refuge in the bed of learning."

His Death

İsmail Sıracüddin Şirvânî died in Amasya on the seventeenth day of Ramadan in the year 1264 of the Hijra. This date falls in the late summer of 1848; the sources give the year as 1847-48 or 1848, and one publication also gives 1853. His age is given as 67. His death came during an epidemic in the city. The sources report the disease as cholera. Because those who die in an epidemic are counted as martyrs in Islamic tradition, an academic article written about him refers to him in its title as a "martyr of the plague" (tâun şehidi).

In accordance with his will, he was buried on the ridge of the hill above the Şamlar Cemetery, overlooking the city. Hüsameddin also relates a memory connected with this wish. When he was asked on his deathbed why he wanted to be buried there, the sheikh pointed to his son Mehmed Rüşdü, who was beside him, and said, "This one will become a vizier; he will make that place flourish." With Rüşdü later rising to the grand vizierate and building a tomb and a mosque over his father's grave, it may be supposed that this saying came to be remembered in local memory as a kind of miracle. But since Hüsameddin's account was recorded after the later events were known, it cannot be verified that the words were spoken with such precision.

His Epithets and Character

Among scholars Şirvânî was given such epithets as Fakîrullah, Kutbü'l-Aktab, Gavsü'l-Enâm, Seyyidü'n-Nüceba, Shah İsmail Şirvânî and Hazret-i Mevlânâ. He is said to have been one of the foremost scholars of his time in both the rational and the transmitted sciences, and to have been regarded as an authority to consult in jurisprudence in particular. Hüsameddin describes him as an exceedingly learned and searching scholar, deeply versed in the rational and transmitted sciences, devoted to worship and God-fearing, a mature master. He is remembered as a humble, respectful guide faithful to the Naqshbandi manner. These descriptions rest on the biographies of local scholars and largely reflect the memory of later generations.

In general assessments of the Khalidiyya, Şirvânî is counted, together with names such as Osman Sıracüddin Tavîlî, Seyyid Tâhâ Hakkârî and Muhammed Kudsî Bozkırî, among the foremost Khalidi sheikhs who brought new life to the scholarly and cultural life of the societies they lived in and were even able to take steps that affected the political fate of those societies. In Amasya, however, his memory lives on mainly as that of a teacher and one of the city's saints. Osman Fevzi Olcay, listing the great Sufis buried in the city in his Amasya Hâtıraları (Memories of Amasya), names him as "Mevlânâ Siraceddin İsmail Şirvânî Kerdemîrî" together with his grave in the Şamlar quarter.

His Family

Şirvânî's family reached high positions in the Ottoman administration and the learned establishment. According to Hüsameddin he had four sons and a daughter: Abdülhamid, Mehmed Rüşdü, Ahmed Hulusi and Mustafa. There are two accounts of the fate of his first son, Abdülhamid, who was born in Shirvan. According to one, he died when his ship sank in the Black Sea during a journey; another account says he drowned in Amasya in 1846. Hüsameddin records that he died childless in 1262 of the Hijra (1846). Mehmed Rüşdü had received his first lessons from his elder brother Abdülhamid and from his father. The youngest son, Mustafa Bey, entered the ranks of high state officials holding the rank of rütbe-i bâlâ and died childless in 1316 of the Hijra (1898-99).

Mehmed Rüşdü Pasha was one of the few men to rise from the learned class to the vizierate and then to the grand vizierate. After his father's death he went to Istanbul, received an ijaza from Vidinli Mustafa Efendi and obtained the rank of madrasa teacher. In 1853 he became director of endowments in Amasya, but he did not stay long in the post and resigned in 1855, returning to Istanbul. Under the patronage of Fuad Pasha he rose to the governorships of Damascus and of Syria and to the ministries of endowments, finance and the interior. In 1871 he was dismissed and compelled to reside in Amasya. He became grand vizier on 16 April 1873 and was dismissed on 13 February 1874. He was sent to the governorship of Aleppo and then of the Hijaz, and died at Taif on 13 September 1874; it was also said that he had been poisoned. Hakverdioğlu's study refers to Yasar's detailed biography and also notes that the pasha had a strong poetic side. This biography, in which the reason for his exile is stated openly, gives examples of the pasha's ghazals.

Ahmed Hulusi Efendi's mother was the daughter of Âkifzâde Seyyid Abdürrahim Efendi of Amasya, an inspector of endowments, and according to Hüsameddin the family's descent from the Prophet (siyadet) came through the mother's side. After studying in Amasya with his father's student Şirvânî Hacı Mustafa Efendi, he went to Istanbul. After becoming the Molla of Galata, he received the honorary ranks of Mecca and Istanbul. In 1874 he became the serving kadı of Istanbul, and afterwards was given the honorary rank of Kazasker of Anatolia. His seal appears on the first five books of the Mecelle with the title of member of the Divân-ı Ahkâm-ı Adliyye (Council of Judicial Ordinances). Hüsameddin also writes that in 1876 he joined Midhat Pasha, Ziya Bey and Namık Kemal Bey and was among the leaders of those who stirred up the madrasa students to bring about the dismissal of Grand Vizier Mahmud Nedim Pasha. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 he was sent by Abdülhamid II as envoy extraordinary to the Afghan Emir Sher Ali Khan, to secure Afghanistan's support for the Ottomans against Russia and to keep it from entering into relations with Britain. The mission, travelling by way of India to Kabul, was able to reach the city only in August, and was received by the emir with some reluctance, but the desired result was not achieved.

On his return Ahmed Hulusi was appointed deputy judge of Diyarbakır in 1878, and two years later he was compelled to reside in Amasya. He lived in his mansion in the Eski Kethüdâ quarter, drawing the salary reserved for kazaskers. According to Hüsameddin, he could never get on with Hacı Hamza Nigârî, his father's deputy, and in 1301 of the Hijra (1883-84) he made accusations against Nigârî that alarmed Sultan Abdülhamid II, thereby causing Nigârî to be removed from Amasya first to Istanbul and then into exile in Harput. While he was having a mill built on the Yeşilırmak in a garden he had acquired next to the Dırağiyye Madrasa, he died suddenly in January 1889 (1306 of the Hijra) and was buried in his father's tomb. Şirvânî's son-in-law and student, Hacı İsa Ruhi Efendi, also lies in the same tomb. Hüsameddin notes that İsa Ruhi Efendi's closest rival was Hamza Nigârî, likewise a student and deputy of the sheikh.

His Deputies and Students in Amasya

According to Hakverdioğlu, thousands of people who regarded Şirvânî as a spiritual pole (kutb) and gathered around him followed him and settled in Amasya and its surroundings under the name Şirvânlı. The spread of the Khalidiyya in the Caucasus, meanwhile, is associated with Muridism, the political movement of Sufi origin that the Muslims of the North Caucasus launched against the Russians at the end of the eighteenth century. Şirvânî's place in this world is that of one of the deputies who carried the Khalidi lineage from the Caucasus to Anatolia.

The sources list among the sheikh's deputies Sheikh Shamil, Sheikh Mehmed Efendi, Sheikh Hacı Ahmed Efendi from the town of Denizli, Ağdaşî, and Mir Hamza Nigârî. It is said that Mawlana İsmail Siraceddin gave a certificate of deputyship to Sheikh Shamil, who is remembered for the resistance to Russian rule in the Caucasus. Academic studies, however, record that Shamil entered the order through Cemâleddin Gazikumukî, the deputy of Şirvânî's deputy Yerâgî; on this account Shamil appears to have been linked to Şirvânî at two removes. Shamil was born in 1797 in the village of Gimri in Dagestan, died in Arabia in 1871 during a pilgrimage, and was buried in the Jannat al-Baqi cemetery in Medina.

Among the sheikh's students in Amasya, the one whose learning he valued most, in Hüsameddin's words, was Şirvânî Hacı Mustafa Efendi. Together with his son-in-law Hacı İsa Ruhi Efendi and his deputy Hamza Nigârî, Mustafa Efendi too joined the ranks of the city's well-known scholars and spread learning in Amasya. In the section of Amasya Tarihi on the madrasas, where Hüsameddin lists the scholars who allowed the city to keep its old reputation in the nineteenth century, he also names "Şirvânî Hacı Mustafa and İsa" Efendis among them, and notes that in his own day their students were still spreading learning.

The best known of his students was Mir Hamza Nigârî. He was born in 1797 in the village of Cicimli in the Zangezur district of Karabakh and received a madrasa education in his youth in Shirvan and Sheki. Because he supported Sheikh Shamil, who was fighting Russian rule, he was forced to emigrate first to Iran and then to Erzurum. He entered the Naqshbandiyya through Khalid al-Baghdadi and began writing poetry in Persian and Turkish. He settled in Amasya with his family and became a student of İsmail Sıracüddin. After journeys to Istanbul, Karabakh, Merzifon and the pilgrimage, he always returned to Amasya. His works include his Divan, the Nigârnâme, Çaynâme, Sâkînâme, Heşt Behişt, Tavzîhât and Eş'ar. The influence of Fuzuli is clearly visible in his poems; he is counted among the last great poets of dervish-lodge literature to leave a divan after Şeyh Gâlib. It is also said that he was granted a salary of 500 kuruş for his services in the Ottoman-Russian struggle. In his Çaynâme he treats tea as an element of companionship that helps the disciple reach the guide, and God, through love. His Divan was prepared from a manuscript copy by Kurtuluş Altunbaş, a literature teacher from Amasya, and published in two volumes in 2004; there is also a separate edition prepared by Azmi Bilgin.

Nigârî's life in Amasya became intertwined with the sheikh's family. During his exile in Amasya in 1871-72, Mehmed Rüşdü Pasha spent his time in the company of Nigârî, his father's deputy, and had a magnificent mansion built for him. Towards the end of his life, however, Nigârî was exiled to Harput. Some sources attribute this exile to the complaints of those in Amasya who envied him; Hüsameddin, by contrast, names Ahmed Hulusi Efendi directly as responsible. Nigârî died in Harput in 1303 of the Hijra (1885-86), and in accordance with his will his body was brought to Amasya and buried beside the Şirvanlı Mosque in Ahırönü. This mosque is also known among the people as the Azeriler (Azerbaijanis') Mosque. Some sources say the mosque was built in 1894 by his admirers. Hüsameddin gives more detailed information: the foundations of the mosque were laid in 1304 of the Hijra (1886-87), with donations collected and sent by Veysî Efendizâde Sheikh Hacı Mahmud Efendi, one of the deputies living in Shirvan, and under the supervision of Mîr Hasan Efendi in Amasya; it was partly completed in 1310 (1892-93), and its façade was finished in 1326 (1908). It is related that during his years of exile in Harput he enjoyed the attention of the governor Hacı Hasan Pasha; that when the pasha worried his body would decay on the road, he answered, "this body has said 'Allah' for eighty years"; and that although the journey took ten to twelve days, the body did not decay. This is a hagiographic account and does not rest on documentary evidence. Nigârî's son Sıracüddin İsmail Efendi (Mir Sirâcî) was also a poet who left verse and died young.

His Tomb

Şirvânî's tomb stands on a high hill above the Şamlar quarter, overlooking the city. Because of its height it is popularly called the Upper Tomb (Yukarı Türbe); the name Şirvanlılar Türbesi (Tomb of the Shirvanis) is also used. According to Hüsameddin, before the sheikh was buried here the hill was called "Şamlılar Üstü" (Above the Şamlılar); once the tomb was built, the place became known as the "Şirvânlı Türbesi." Osman Fevzi Olcay, describing the Sofular quarter, also writes that the sheikh lies at the very commanding point of the hill and refers to the building as the "Mevlânâ Siraceddin Türbesi." According to Hüsameddin, in the Şamlılar quarter, to the north of the road leading to the tomb, stands the Ayşe Gâzi Tomb, held to be the resting place of the wife and daughter of Melik Danishmend Ahmed Gazi, ruler of the Danishmendids.

The building was commissioned by his son, Şirvanlızâde Mehmed Rüşdü Pasha. Its date of construction is given differently in the sources. A date based on its inscription is 1867 (1283 of the Hijra). Hüsameddin gives 1284 of the Hijra (1867-68) in one place and 1286 (1869-70) in another as the year of construction. The date 1870 also appears in the sources. Its endowments were arranged in 1290 of the Hijra (1873-74). A note in Hüsameddin's biography of the son, Rüşdü Pasha, helps explain this discrepancy: when the pasha was exiled to Amasya in 1871, he completed the tomb and the mosque of his father that were then under construction. On this basis it may be supposed that construction began between 1867 and 1870 and was finished during the pasha's residence in Amasya in 1871-72.

The tomb is square in plan. Adjoining it is a small masjid, also square in plan and built larger than the tomb. Hüsameddin describes this arrangement as a masonry building with two domes, the western one being the masjid and the eastern one the tomb. Rubble stone is used in the main walls, and dressed cut stone at the corners, doors and windows. In front of the entrance on the north façade of the masjid is a small portico with Bursa arches carried on four wooden posts. The tomb and the masjid, lit by round-arched windows, are each covered by a dome. Inside lie Şirvânî, his son Ahmed Hulusi Efendi, and his son-in-law Hacı İsa Ruhi Efendi. In the enclosure outside are graves belonging to the Şirvanlızâde family.

The building seen today is only part of the complex as it was originally founded. According to Hüsameddin, Rüşdü Pasha, in keeping with his father's will, enclosed the grave within a wall and built over it a lofty tomb, beside it a mosque and a minaret, in one corner a tall pavilion, and between the pavilion, the mosque and the tomb a handsome ablution fountain. The courtyard of the tomb was spacious and its view beautiful; some of the water flowing to the fountain of the Şamlılar quarter was assigned to the tomb, and later all of it was given to the tomb and its connection with the fountain was cut. According to one account, the mosque with its wide courtyard has disappeared, while the mansion has been restored. The south and east sides are a cemetery in which many scholars lie, but many of the graves are reported to have been damaged over time.

The tomb is also mentioned in a stanza of verse quoted in the part of Amasya Tarihi that describes the castle. For the tomb seen to the right of the castle, that is to its northeast, the following lines appear:

Sağında bunun türbe-i Şirvânî-i Kâmil
Kandîl-i hüdâ feyz-i Hudâ nûr-ı fezâ'il
Yanında yatar Hazret-i Îsâ gibi fâzıl
Etrâfı bütün kümmel ü ahyâr-ı Amasya

The lines speak of the tomb of the perfect Şirvânî to the castle's right, a lamp of guidance and a light of virtues, beside whom lies a learned man like Hazret-i Îsâ, all around being the perfected and the good of Amasya; the "Îsâ" of the third line is İsa Ruhi Efendi, the son-in-law who lies beside the sheikh in the tomb. According to Olcay, Sebâtî Hoca, one of the city's well-known poets, and his son Ali Hâver Bey also lived near the tomb.

The Shirvanis in Amasya

Şirvânî's settlement played a part in the spread of the nisba Şirvânî in Amasya. Hüseyin Hüsameddin Yasar's twelve-volume Amasya Tarihi gives the biographies of many scholars, poets and officials who came from the Shirvan region. Listing the great families of the city, Hüsameddin writes that alongside the old Şirvânî lineage descended from Sheikh Alâeddin Ali Şirvânî, one of the notables of the 800s of the Hijra, a new lineage had recently arisen from the descendants of İsmail Sıracüddin Şirvânî, and that all of them were called "Şirvânîzâde"; Grand Vizier Mehmed Rüşdü Pasha and Kazasker Ahmed Efendi came from this family. According to Hakverdioğlu, even those who were not from Shirvan, such as people from Karabakh, came over time to be counted as Şirvânî under a general designation, a usage shaped both by the influence of the Shirvanshah state and by İsmail Şirvânî's life in Amasya. These names come from every level of society, from grand vizier to lower-ranking official, and what they share is devotion to learning and the arts. Şirvânî's arrival in Amasya in an age of migration, and the training of a Sufi poet such as Mir Hamza Nigârî, created a new cultural bond between Azerbaijan and Anatolia.

Chronology

1782: Born in the village of Kürdemir, attached to Şemâhî in Shirvan (1786 in some publications).

1800-01: Went to Erzincan, studied with Evliyâzâde Abdurrahmân Efendi and received an ijaza.

1805-06: Studied jurisprudence in Burdur, then returned to Shirvan and began teaching in Şemâhî.

1812-13: Went on pilgrimage and, by way of Istanbul and Basra, reached Baghdad and attached himself to Khalid al-Baghdadi (according to Hüsameddin).

1813-14 or 1817: Received an ijaza from Khalid al-Baghdadi and returned to Shirvan.

1823: His deputy Molla Muhammed (Gazi Muhammed) returned to Dagestan and began his work of guidance.

1824-26: Russian pressure in Shirvan and the imprisonment of the sheikh (1825-26 according to Hüsameddin).

1826-27: Freed from Russian imprisonment and reached Akhaltsikhe.

1827 or 1828: Came to Amasya and was first lodged in the Saraçhane Madrasa.

1827-28: Settled in the house bought for him in the Yâkûtiye quarter.

1828-30: His son Mehmed Rüşdü (later grand vizier) was born in Yâkûtiye.

1831-32: Left for Sivas with his family following the rabita controversy.

1833-34: His son Ahmed Hulusi was born in Sivas.

1840: Came to Amasya for the second time and settled there.

1844: His son Mustafa was born.

1846: His first son, Abdülhamid, died.

1848: Died during an epidemic on the seventeenth day of Ramadan 1264 of the Hijra (1847-48 in some sources).

1867-70: Construction of the tomb was begun by his son Rüşdü Pasha (1867 according to the inscription, 1867-68 and 1869-70 in other sources).

1871-72: Rüşdü Pasha, in exile in Amasya, completed the tomb and the mosque.

1873-74: His endowments were arranged.

1874: His son Mehmed Rüşdü Pasha died at Taif.

1889: His son Ahmed Hulusi Efendi died in Amasya.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

  • Metin Hakverdioğlu, "Anadolu'yu Aydınlatan Şirvânîler ve Amasya'daki Şirvânî Şairler", Amasya Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, Special Issue, 2022, pp. 129-155.
  • İbrahim Erol, "Üsküdar'da Medfun Dağıstanlı Nakşibendî Şeyhi Cemâleddin Gazikumukî, Hayatı ve Tasavvufî Şaysiyeti", Uluslararası Üsküdar Sempozyumu XI Bildirileri, vol. III.

Other sources

  • Mehmet Ali Beyhan, "Şirvânîzâde Mehmed Rüşdü Paşa", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 39, Istanbul 2010, pp. 209-210. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • Süleyman Uludağ, "Müridizm", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 32, Istanbul 2006, pp. 50-52. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • Reşat Öngören, "Sugūrî", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Supplement vol. 2, Ankara 2019, pp. 522-523.
  • TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, entry "Hâlidiyye".
  • Necdet Tosun, "Râbıta", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 34, Istanbul 2007, pp. 378-379.
  • Abdulcebbar Kavak, "Osmanlı Devleti'nin İlmî ve Siyasî Hayatında İz Bırakan Hâlîdî Şeyhleri Arasında Ahmed Ziyaüddin Gümüşhanevî'nin Yeri", 2014.
  • Hüseyin Menç, Tarih İçinde Amasya.
  • Amasya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, information text on the Upper (İsmail Şirvani) Tomb.

Online sources